Podcaster: Ralph & Paul
Title :Awesome Astronomy’s October Sky Guide
Organization: Awesome Astronomy
Link : www.awesomeastronomy.com
Description: What to look out, and up, for in October. We try for a glimpse of the ice giants’ moons, offer advice on which planets will be available for northern hemisphere observers to see and bring news of a penumbral lunar eclipse. Of course, we’ll finish off with a round up of the best galaxies, star clusters and nebulae on offer around the sky throughout the month.
Bio: Awesome Astronomy is the show for anyone and everyone who has even the slightest interest in astronomy and science.
Join Ralph & Paul at the beginning of each month, for an informative and fun astronomy programme telling you what to look out (and up) for every month. You can be guaranteed a passion for astronomy, simple explanations of complex and fundamental topics, space and science news, absorbing interviews and listeners’ astronomy questions answered.
As both presenters have been accused of being a little skeptical in the past, you can also expect everything to be frivolous but fact-based
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2013, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Transcript:
October: we’re past the Autumn Equinox and the long dark nights are definitely in the ascendency; if the weather behaves then we are in for a treat this month. We have planets putting on a show, two decent meteor showers, a lunar eclipse, and a range of great DSOs to enjoy.
Let’s start with those planets and the first to mention is Herschel’s Planet Uranus. The ice giant is currently sitting in Pisces and in a dark sky should be naked eye visible at around Mag 5.72 it’s below star δ Pisces and reasonably easy to locate. It is at opposition on October 3rd so is as close as it will be this year and while you need a big scope to see anything bigger than a small greybluegreen disc it is certainly worth a look- here is a planet that was only discovered in 1789 and we still know very little about it, only Voyager 2 having passed by quickly in 1986. Of Uranus’ 27 known moons four are typically visible in amateur telescopes over a minimum aperture of 8 inches Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, and for those with time, patience, good eyes and imaging kit a fifth Miranda can sometimes be found. Don’t hold your breath, the moons are elusive and you may have to satisfy yourself with just the planet.
Neptune shouldn’t be over looked and while not a naked eye object we are still not very far past opposition, which was at the end of August so if you want to grab a glimpse of the furthest planet then have a look in the constellation Aquarius not far from the star Ancha, Neptune will be sitting between the stars e aqr and δ aqr.
Moving on to Mercury which reaches its Greatest Eastern Elongation on October 9th. It will be a difficult observation at sunset as this elongation is measured along the ecliptic and while this elongation is a degree longer than the one in June the ecliptic will be low to the horizon this time round. Mercury will be Mag 0.2 and is a tiny object to locate and it is amazing how many people have never seen it.
Venus is not far behind Mercury in the sky and is between Libra and Scorpious, again like mercury it is low to the horizon at sunset, but it is blazing away at -4.11 so should be easy locate and on the evening of 8th it will share the sky with a slim crescent moon which should make for a wonderful sight just after sunset.
The morning skies are giving us a glimpse of the winter to come and blazing away in Gemini is of course the returning King, Jupiter. Gemini pops up over the horizon at latitude 51 around midnight at the beginning of the month and as early as 8-30 9 oclock UT by the months end. At magnitude -2.4 Jupiter is unmistakable and of course even binoculars or a small scope will reveal the Galilean moons and scopes above 3 inch will start to show details on the planetary disc. Opposition for Jupiter is still many months away so we have a long Jupiter season ahead and with an impressive 60 degrees of altitude being achieved, the King is really going to be looking down on us this winter.
Following on behind and still skulking in the predawn sky is mars which is still a very long way from it’s best. That said it is providing other opportunities and while last month it passed through the beehive cluster in Cancer this month the star Regulus in Leo gets the red planet treatment with mars passing close by between 10th and 20th with closest conjunction on 15th and 16th . This should be a good chance to improve your knowledge of magnitude as both will be of very similar brightness, Mars at 1.56 and Regulus at 1.35
The moon presents us with an eclipse this month though it is not a full one, rather a penumbral Eclipse. Now this is due to the Earth’s shadow and the moon’s orbit being more complex beasts that at first appears. The moon’s orbit elliptical and is of course inclined at a little over 5 degrees while the shadow Earth projects into space has two major parts the moon can pass through, the Umbra (Latin for shadow) is the cone of shadow projecting behind the Earth away from the Sun and this causes partial and total eclipses. The area around the Umbra is the penumbra ( or almost shadow) and this creates eclipses where the moon darkens or reddens rather than vanishing. This penumbrial eclipse will occur at Full moon on the 18th and be visible across much of the world except the Pacific region and Australasia. It will begin at 2150 UT and will end at 0149 UT. New Moon is on October 5th.
We have a couple of nice meteor showers in October to look forward to, with the draconids, resulting from comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, in the early part of the month peaking on the 7-8th October. This is a small shower but can produce sudden unexpected bursts and with such a high radiant it is one of the showers that is better in the first half of the night. Towards the end of the month we have the Orionids which peaks on the night 21st-22nd. Now this is a bigger shower than the Draconids and is the second meteor shower from Comet Halley, the other being the Eta Aquariids in early May. Now while the Orionids are a bigger shower, the moon is badly placed for the peak and it maybe that those of you out there needing a meteor fix will have better luck with the smaller Draconids that occur nearer the new moon.
Deep sky astronomy this month is still dominated by constellations such as Pegasus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia which we covered last month, but following behind and becoming nicely placed for observation as the month progresses are Perseus, camelopardalis and Auriga.
Perseus is a slightly indistinct constellation to the east of Cassiopeia but contains some real treasures, such as open cluster M34, NGC 869, 884 the famous double cluster and M76 the Little dumbbell planetary nebula, famously one the hardest of the messier to see and interestingly is thought to be what M57 the ring nebula would look like if viewed side on. It is also worth mentioning NGC1499, the California emission nebula, a very difficult low surface brightness target.
Camelopardalis, or the giraffe is one of those constellations astronomers wave at and say “its over there” It contains several galaxies that can be seen in larger amateur scopes, such as NGC2403, a William Herschel discovery and part of the M81 group. The highlight of Camelopardus (to use the older spelling) has to be kembles cascade, a line of stars that ends in the splash pool of open cluster NGC1502. A great small scope and binocular sight.
Auriga, the charioteer, is a far more obvious constellation sign posted by Capella the sixth brightest star in the sky. Here you will find three beautiful open clusters M36, 37 and 38. You will also be able to find IC405 the flaming star nebula which is lit up by star AE Auriga. This star is interesting because it is not thought to originate in the nebula but is a runaway interloper and actually started life in M42, the Orion nebula.
Good luck with the October skies and remember to wrap up warm!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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